Being the Continuing Adventures of a Woman and her Trusty Kayak in New York Harbor, the Hudson River, and Beyond.
(with occasional political rants just to keep things lively!)

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Lunchtime Links & Pool Session Updates

Busy week here, so here's a little lazy linkage on my lunch break!

1. The Paddling Chef sent an interesting NY Times article about that funkedelic animated subway art I'd "filmed" (with my Optio) back in December. I think my favorite line in the whole article is a quote from the artist himself: "I think it was such a preposterous idea that no one bothered to say no..."

2. Ah, maybe THIS is what they did with all the algae from the Olympic sailing venue in Qingdao...

Back on the pool session topic - I'd posted a few that I knew about off the top of my head, and that (and a few inquiries I made on NYCKayaker) ended up with people giving me info about some I either had forgotten about, couldn't remember sponsors for, or didn't know about. No time for details but the websites should give those:

Andy, who's been doing the Yonkers Paddling & Rowing Clubs rolling sessions forever & (with Greenland mentor Jack) did a ton to help me get over a very stubborn mental block I got after subluxing a shoulder on my very first attempt to roll a sea kayak, posted the following:

The Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club expects to arrange pool sessions again this winter: http://www.yprc.org/ Also, The New York Kayak Polo Club currently has pool sessions on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings for polo games and practice: http://www.nykayakpolo.org/Schedule.htmlSo, there's no excuse for sitting around and being lazy when you could be improving your kayak skills in a nice warm indoor pool. OK, Snow sledding in kayaks is cool, and maybe skiing, ice skating and snowshoeing too. and ice sculpturing, ice climbing, any others??

Andy

(please note that the NY Kayak Polo sessions are primarily for active members of that group; if you've never played but are interested, check out the intro sessions page mentioned at the top of the page; if you have played & don't need a from-scratch intro, there's contact info on that site you can use to find out more, they're always looking for fresh blood, mwahahahaaa!)

NY/NJ AMC starting in Feb.http://www.amc-ny.org/poolsessions/$10, they supply boat, lottery, don't have to be a member. I believe the location is handy to mass transit, and you don't have to haul large stuff.

(funny that I am being reminded about a NJ session by a Vermont paddler, but that's one of the odd but fun things about this blogging thing, you never know who's going to tell you about what)

Wallingford, CT: Speaking of Greenland mentors, Cheri & Turner of Kayakways are offering their usual winter pool lessons (partially sponsored by Connyak, http://www.connyak.org/) up in Wallingford, CT. http://www.kayakways.net/poolsessions0809.html This one's a bit far away for NYC people to get to, but I can't leave 'em out 'cause they are really amazing intructors & people in CT might stumble across this post at some point!

I also got a couple of updates on the Downtown Boathouse sessions, which were not happening for a while due to roof repairs at the pool - the word is that the repairs seem to be on track for them to go this weekend but there wasn't a final confirmation, that should come today or tomorrow. I'll try to update this whenever that comes out, but my friends at the DTBH also mentioned that there's a phone number for the pool on their website that can be called for updates - http://downtownboathouse.org/programs.html , scroll down to find the winter pool session info.